Indiegogo campaign tries to crowdfund legal fees for Rob Ford

Does a guy whose family members can afford to hand out $20 bills to crowds need charity from the internet? The creator of this Indiegogo campaign—entitled “Stop the Bullying! Help Pay Mayor Ford’s Legal Costs”—definitely thinks so.

Iain McLaren, the person behind the crowdfunding campaign, said in an email that he has no affiliation with Rob Ford, and is acting completely on his own. “The personal wealth of the Mayor has no bearing on principle,” McLaren wrote. “Do we want to live in a society where people are deterred from running for office in fear of constant harassment? How many people have been put off running for office because of the unprecedented bullying they have seen the Mayor face?”

The alleged harasser, in this instance, is Star reporter Daniel Dale, who started the process of bringing a defamation suit against the mayor and Vision TVon Thursday. McLaren believes Dale’s lawsuit is politically motivated, and that it sets an ugly precedent.

The mayor—whose family owns a successful label company, and whose personal net worth seems to be considerable—has already paid his own way through several costly legal proceedings. The fees related to his 2012 conflict-of-interest lawsuit alone are believed to have been in excess of $116,000. When this was written, the Indiegogo campaign had raised $225 of its $50,000 goal.